Tips on preventing panic attacks

[Worrygirl32]

Does anyone have any tips on preventing panic attacks? I get really bad test anxiety so I know when the anxiety starts and I know when to expect it but sometimes I get full fledge panic attacks and I would like to stop them before they get out of control.

[ankietyjoe]

The best thing you can do is accept them, and remind yourself what you know about anxiety. The one thing we all know (but all forget) is that a panic attack passes. I would start by saying 'I know this will be here, I know it is temporary and I know in 10 minutes (or an hour, whatever the time will be) I will be walking away from this situation and I will feel calmer again.

You can also try slowing down your breathing, and saying to yourself slowly 'this will pass'.

Panic attacks are really the feedback loop we create in our minds. You start to feel anxiety, you worry about the anxiety, you feel more anxiety etc etc. That's the 'out of control' bit.

Walk into the test and say 'yeah, I'll probably have a panic attack....so what...'

[robinhall]

Hi WorryGirl

Did you check out the sticky on the top of this forum??

cbt4panic.org

[Carys]

Walk into the test and say 'yeah, I'll probably have a panic attack....so what...' What ankietyjoe said, its a lot of sense!

The trick to panic attacks is to stop fearing them - they don't kill you, they won't even make you ill, they are self-limiting if you allow them to be - they are simply the cycle of adrenaline and physiological response causing you to become even more fearful.

There may not be a way to be sure you can STOP them before they can happen, but you can stop them if they do happen, by adopting the approach talked about above. Accept you might have one, even expect one, and then say to yourself if it happens 'ahh, so there we go, bang on cue a panic attack.....ah well I'll just get on with things....it will pass soon'.

[hr1027]

Hey I got over them using the website cbt4panic.com and tbh although my symptoms do scare me sometimes I don't really panic about them anymore and hopefully you'll be able do this to. I'm doing exams in college now which are pretty stressful but I also know that it's only chemicals like adrenaline making me feel on the brink of panic and so it doesn't affect me and then the panic doesn't happen!